Board of health to develop policies, procedures, bylaws

A national assessment of the Carson City Board of Health has prompted its members to focus on developing more formal policies, said Health and Human Services Director Marena Works.

"The last couple of meetings we've been working on developing the Board of Health. There previously were no bylaws, so we basically started at square one,"

Works said. "And 2010 was the first year we started holding regular meetings."

The Carson City Board of Health is comprised of the city's Board of Supervisors, health officer Dr. Susan Pintar and Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong.

Carson City was one of 30 cities selected as a beta test site, and in June, two facilitators met with the board.

"They did a governance assessment with a report showing us our strengths and weaknesses. We want to have a good active board so we're looking at accreditation - it gives us a plan to align ourselves and gives us a focus," she said.

Works said most of the recommendations involve formalizing the way the board operates.

"It's mostly a matter of formalizing what we're already doing. Maybe we're doing things we should be doing, but we don't have a formal policy, and maybe we have agreements with other agencies, but they're not formalized. This will help us to define ourselves a little better," she said.

Some of the suggested recommendations which came out of the assessment were:

• Create a policies and procedures document. Work with the health department to update data collection policies.

• Create a visual representation of current health education and promotion programs and identify ownership of each; identify where coordination can improve, and share the final product with the community.

• Determine how well the board assesses the availability of financial resources, personnel resources and technological resources.

• Review the all-hazards emergency response plan and identify how often the plan will be reviewed in the future.

• The board should periodically review community outreach efforts and links to personal health services.

• Annually review the core functions of public health with the board and invite all new health department employees.

• Continue to assist the health department in preparing for accreditation and for moving through the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships process.

• Work with the health department to understand and assess the availability of resources for research, and identify best practices in the community through interviews.